‘I played pretty well,’ said Gulbis. ‘In the third set he took a medical time-out when it was five-all.

‘Actually he had nothing (wrong with him), he just broke my rhythm, and I wasn’t an experienced enough player to deal with that at the time.

‘Then in St Petersburg, I was tired of the season. I was trying to play a good match, but in my mind already I was home.

‘I don’t say that I would have beaten him, but in this tournament it’s going to be like a new match and the past won’t count so much.’

It would be overstating things to say their second-round encounter will be a grudge match, but Gulbis clearly believes his defeats against Murray have not been a fair reflection of his ability.

Gulbis and Murray have been travelling in opposite directions in the world rankings these past 12 months.

While Murray has soared to number three, Gulbis has tumbled from 38 to 74.

He puts it down to concentrating on his physique rather than his tennis, although Murray could counter by saying he has done both with spectacular success.

Gulbis said: ‘I did a lot of physical work and physically I’m much better than I was and tennis-wise, slowly, slowly, I’m getting my form back.

‘I just need one tournament to play good. I think I’m going to be confident then. I lack a little bit of confidence now because I didn’t win a lot of matches. But if I make one good tournament, I think I can do much better.

‘The tennis can’t just disappear. I am playing aggressively like I did before, because for the last couple of matches I didn’t play the game which I am used to playing. I played a more defensive game, but that’s not my game. I understand that now.’

Gulbis is also confident he can cope with the Centre Court atmosphere, which was warmly supportive of Murray in his first-round triumph against Robert Kendrick without reaching the rapture which inevitably accompanied matches involving Tim Henman.

Gulbis, who reached the quarter-finals of the French Open last year and the fourth round in New York the year before, said: ‘The Wimbledon crowd are pretty fair.

‘They will cheer more for him but they will not disturb my game. For me it doesn’t matter if somebody is for my opponent.

‘I played once in Macedonia and they were like showing fingers and laughing so I think here it’s easy.’

Murray was taking nothing for granted.

‘Gulbis is a very tough opponent,’ he said.

‘He has caused some upsets in the past and is a huge hitter of the ball. I’m going to need to be on my game to beat him.’